The Daily Spin, October 29
Declan McKenna | Zeros
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: Zeros (2020)
Artist: Declan McKenna
Link:
Probably best known for ‘Brazil’ his anthemic takedown of Sepp Blatter and FIFA penned when he was just 15 years old, Declan McKenna has since curated a reputation as a talented vocalist, emulating Bowie and the Beatles with style and form that outstrips expectation of someone his age.
It’s unfortunate, then, that Zeros fails to resonate with me more strongly. Outside of flashes of strong instrumentation and appealing vocals, a lot of this record washes over me as a total nothingburger - in one ear, out the other. It’s an album designed to be a political statement, but it feels alternately heavy-handed and like an assortment of total nothingburgers.
McKenna doesn’t quite command the stage presence nor have the gravitas of Bowie, and so many other people have done the balladic pop rock schtick so much better - the maturity that was so present through ‘Brazil’ feels stagnant, as though he’s trying to make a bunch of statements he himself doesn’t fully believe in.
When he takes his foot off the proverbial gas a little bit, the album wavers towards solid and on towards excellent, but it doesn’t happen nearly enough for this to be the sort of album I’d want to come back to.
Rating: 7.2/10
Best Tracks: Twice Your Size; Be an Astronaut
Worst Tracks: The Key to Life on Earth; You Better Believe!!!